


Excerpts from the Black Book of Kandor

by Alsike



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen, Kryptonian Culture & Customs, Mythology - Freeform, WB: Kryptonian Language & Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-11-18 10:22:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18118889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alsike/pseuds/Alsike
Summary: As long as the stories are told, the world and its people are not gone.





	Excerpts from the Black Book of Kandor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VampirePaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/gifts).



It was a game they played, late at night, Alex in one bed, grumpy at being woken up by the alien's tears again, and Kara, quiet and dumb with sadness, in the other. They had started with plots of Disney movies, Alex correcting her phrasing, supplying words Kara couldn't remember, but they ran out, and so this night Alex asked, "Why don't you tell me a story from Krypton? What was your favorite story back home?"

Kara went taut for a moment, but Alex had been feeling uncomfortable about always talking around Krypton, never bringing up that pink galaxy sized elephant that was the whole reason Kara was here. So Alex had decided to barrel through like a . . . well an out of control rolling barrel probably.

"You-- you want to hear one from Krypton?"

"Sure."

"But how will you know if I get it wrong?"

Alex rolled her eyes and hid partly behind the pillow. "Trust me, I'll know."

Kara gave her a suspicious look as if she didn't trust Alex to know her own elbow from her ear, but settled down deeper under her blankets. (They'd taken to tucking them as deep under the mattress as they could, but still she dragged them out when floating. Alex told her mom they should just put her in a sleeping bag.)

Kara's voice came softly from the huddle of pillow and blankets. "My favorite one is about the twins."

"The twins?"

"Mm. Elkenon and Zerenzod."

"Those aren't Kryptonian names."

Kara peeked up from behind her blankets, grinning in a way that made Alex preemptively embarrassed and therefore angry. "Old names."

"Fine."

"It's a very old story, before the Codex. I like it because there are twins, like my mom and aunt, and because--" Her voice died away, and Alex could feel the sink as she started to slip.

"Fine, enough backstory. What happens in it? Once upon a time--"

That made Kara pull out again, scrunching her nose in distaste. "No 'once upon a time,' that makes no sense. No-- back when the light of Rao was blue."

Blue? Alex thought, not asking aloud. Did that mean before Rao was a red giant? Ages and ages ago, when it was a white dwarf?

"Back when the light of Rao was blue, a woman, whose name was Mara, decided that she was clever enough to charm both gods. So she dressed herself in the colors of night and found Cythonna in her garden, and enticed her with sly words and intent eyes, and Cythonna brought her to her bed and--" Kara's voice broke off suddenly. "I don't--"

"It's fine," Alex squeaked, suddenly red faced and not sure why. "I know what happened."

"Right," Kara said, worrying her lower lip a little, then plunging on. "After that she dressed herself in the colors of day and found Rao on his mountain top, and enticed him with laughter and jokes, and Rao brought her to his bed, and, _zii_ . . ."

"Et cetera," Alex supplied, a little weakly.

"Et cetera," Kara repeated, and she smiled unexpectedly, eyes laughing. Alex wasn't sure if she was being made fun of or not.

"A cycle on, Mara gave birth to two boys, the twins, Elkenon, who was bright and laughing like Rao, and Zerenzod who was dark and solemn like Cythonna. Everyone said how different they were, how it was so strange that they were blood, and even stranger that they were friends, because they were so different. But the twins were puzzled by this, because though on the surface they differed in many ways, inside, they were as one. They knew-- they knew each other's _honor_."

Alex frowned as she lay back, letting the blankets and pillows surround her. It felt like the translation wasn't quite right, but some part of the meaning of the word had spoken to Kara, and she waited to find out what it was.

"Of course the twins had adventures--capturing the wild Zeed Zods, climbing through the Chasms of Eternity, building flying machines to sail on the wind from Teepertot to the Mount of Rao, where Rao himself met them. Though all his courtiers told him that clearly Elkenon was his son, and Zerenzod was not, he knew very well that they were one, and he embraced them both, not favoring one over the other.

"But then came the day that their Uncle, Mara's brother, rose up against Rao, intending to overthrow him, and Elkenon and Zerenzod strapped up their thighs--"

"Um?" Interrupted Alex.

Kara looked over, brow furrowed. "They strapped up their thighs?"

"What does that mean?"

"Oh! Weapons," Kara clarified. "They tied weapons--swords are the closest I think--to their thighs, so they could use them easily, you know?"

"Right," Alex said. That made sense. "Thanks."

Kara beamed at her. It was different, Alex realized, correcting Kara versus asking her for clarification. It seemed they both liked the second one better.

"Wearing their swords," Kara continued, "they went to fight their Uncle and his hordes of Baree."

Alex had no idea what hordes of Baree were, but she let the possible images float up in her head--orange monkey men, loyal soldiers, sentient bananas--and enjoyed them regardless.

"They defeated him, but Zerenzod threw himself in front of a javelin bound for Elkenon and was killed. Elkenon was devastated by this. They were one. And now they were . . . cut in two."

"Rent asunder," Alex said. She wasn't sure why. Cut in two was fine. But it felt more important than that. It needed more important words.

Kara glanced over at her, unsure, but she said it, and she seemed to taste the heaviness in the words. "They were rent asunder.

"Rao, grateful to the twins for saving him, told Elkenon that he would give him one wish. Immediately, Elkenon wished for Zerenzod back. Rao could not raise the dead, for that would go against the order of things." Kara flashed Alex a smile. "Aunt Astra always said they should have asked Cythonna. But there was one thing Rao could do. So he did it, and told Elkenon that he must wander. He would have no home for twenty years, and never live for more than one cycle on any planet or moon in the galaxy. So Elkenon became the Wanderer. He roamed for twelve hundred years out among the stars, and when twelve hundred years were done he was on a far distant moon of a far distant planet, and he met a young shepherd boy who spun yarn and wove his own cloth from it.

"In the market for a new cape, Elkenon spoke to the boy. Within two sentences he saw his honor, and knew the boy was Zerenzod reborn. Rao had brought him back. And though he was in a new body--an alien one--with fairer hair and darker skin, Elkenon knew him at once. But of course he did. They were one, even across galaxies."

Kara's voice died away.

"Is that it?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," Kara said quietly. "I just-- Even when Zerenzod was dead, Elkenon always had him. Even alone, he knew him and-- carried that. I wish I had someone who even separated by death and distance, I would know anywhere. I wish I had someone to know my honor."

 _Your soul,_ Alex guessed. _Your sense of justice, of right and wrong_. The parts of you that make you more than an animal. Perhaps even the parts of you that love and hurt.

Kara fell asleep quickly, but Alex stayed up, staring at the shadowed ceiling, trying to imagine what it would be like to offer herself to someone, and to have that someone love her enough to know her, even in a new form, even across galaxies.

#


End file.
